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Congress takes ‘justice’ message to voters

The party is fighting the elections on the issue of ‘five nyay’ (justices) giving 25 guarantees which have been announced by the Congress president and Rahul Gandhi..reports Asian Lite News

The Congress Working Committee held a detailed discussion on the manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls which has a heavy thrust on the party’s ‘nyay’ agenda and authorised party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to grant it final approval.

Addressing a press conference after the CWC meeting, Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh said that the party will build on the momentum of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, during which the party announced five guarantees and a plan has been prepared to take the message of guarantees at the grassroots level.

The party is fighting the elections on the issue of ‘five nyay’ (justices) — ‘Bhagidari Nyay’, ‘Kisan Nyay’, ‘Nari Nyay’, ‘Shramik Nyay’ and ‘Yuva Nyay’ — giving 25 guarantees, five for each nyay, which have been announced by the Congress president Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.

Jairam Ramesh said that the party is ready for the Lok Sabha polls.

“The meeting we had today was not just for our manifesto but for our ‘nyay patra’. Congress is absolutely ready for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In the meeting today, there were discussions on our agenda. For the last 63 days, Rahul Gandhi has been talking about our five Nyay and has announced 25 guarantees…This is not just a simple manifesto but an important ‘nyay patra’ so that the people of our country can see a better future,” he said.

Laying thrust on the party’s promise to fulfil vacancies in the government, KC Venugopal said the Congress government in Telangana has given 30,000 government jobs in three months.

“In the same way, we are giving promises to the people of the country addressing the concerns of the rural youth, women and farmers,” he said.

Answering a query about the opposition’s allegation of misuse of probe agencies by the BJP-led government at the Centre, Ramesh said that the issue was discussed in detail at the CWC meeting and the party’s manifesto will mention steps to prevent misuse of agencies like CBI, Enforcement Directorate besides Income Tax Department.

The Congress, he said, will take its message of “nyay” to every home in the country over the next month.

The meeting of CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, was held days after the announcement of schedule for the Lok Sabha elections. The Lok Sabha polls and assembly polls in four states will be held from April 19 and June 1 and results will be declared on June 4.

The manifesto committee, chaired by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, had earlier given its draft to Kharge.

According to sources, the manifesto would put forth the party’s intent to bring in necessary amendments to curb the misuse of central investigating agencies. For example, the manifesto is likely to talk about the need to do away with the controversial provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which are allegedly being misused by the Enforcement Directorate to target opposition leaders.

As per sources, there was a discussion on the party pledging to implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee on improving the social, economic, and educational status of Muslims.

“The guarantees announced under the five Nyays are going to be a game-changer in this election. The party will launch a massive campaign to take the Nyays to the people,” K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation, told reporters after the CWC meeting.

The Committee successfully ensured public participation in this exercise, rather than merely confining it to an academic one. It held extensive consultations in different parts of the country and submitted a draft to me on March 6th, 2024, Kharge said.

He said that suggestions and comments were also solicited through an online website which was rightly called “Awaaz Bharat Ki”.

“Whatever has been promised in Manifesto, will be strictly implemented. Before making promises in the Manifesto, in-depth deliberation has been made to ensure that these promises are implementable,” he said.

He said it is because of this very fact that right from 1926, the Congress Party’s Manifesto has been regarded as a “document of trust and commitment”.

Kharge recalled after independence, the Congress party’s first manifesto was released under the leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru which was famously called “What Congress stands for”.

Speaking on the recently concluded Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said, “Mumbai is an important place for us because our party was formed here. The freedom movement got its final fillip with the Quit India movement in 1942”.

“These were not just political Yatras but will be noted as the largest mass contact movement in our political history. One can’t undermine the fact that nobody in our times has undertaken such a massive exercise. Both these Yatras managed to take the issue of the people to the national centre stage,” Kharge said.

“During the Yatra, both me and Rahul Ji addressed several public rallies in which we spoke of our guarantees and commitments under the Five pillars of the Yatra – Kisan Nyay, Yuva Nyay, Naari Nyay, Shramik Nyay and Hissedari nyay,” he said. (ANI)

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47% of UK voters like Sunak

It’s not impossible for the Conservatives to rebuild their popularity before the next election, due by the end of 2024. But it won’t be easy. Current polls suggest the Labour Party would win handily…reports Asian Lite News

Rishi Sunak has been Britain’s prime minister for a month. In the tumultuous world of U.K. politics in 2022, that’s an achievement.

Sunak, who took office a month ago Friday on Oct. 25, has steadied the nation after the brief term of predecessor Liz Truss. Britain’s first prime minister of color, Sunak has stabilized the economy, reassured allies from Washington to Kyiv and even soothed the European Union after years of sparring between Britain and the bloc.

But Sunak’s challenges are just beginning. He is facing a slowing economy, a cost-of-living crisis — and a governing Conservative Party that is fractious and increasingly unpopular after 12 years in power.

Opinion polls have good news and bad news for Sunak. The public quite likes the 42-year-old former investment banker, but his party is another matter.

In a survey by pollster Ipsos, 47% of respondents said they liked the prime minister, while 41% disliked him.

“That’s definitely better than Boris Johnson was getting earlier this year,” said Gideon Skinner, Ipsos’ head of political research. But he said Sunak’s popularity “is not showing signs of rubbing off onto the Conservative Party brand.”

In the same survey the Conservative Party was liked by just 26%, and disliked by 62% — the worst figures for the party in 15 years. The Ipsos phone survey of 1,004 adults is considered accurate to within plus or minus four percentage points.

Many voters welcome Sunak as a change from Truss and her predecessor Johnson, who quit in July after three scandal-plagued years in office. But the party has been in power since 2010, making it hard for Conservatives to avoid blame for the country’s financial woes.

Lingering allegations of misconduct also are tarnishing its image. On Wednesday Sunak appointed a senior lawyer to investigate allegations of bullying against his deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab.

It’s not impossible for the Conservatives to rebuild their popularity before the next election, due by the end of 2024. But it won’t be easy. Current polls suggest the Labour Party would win handily.

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic Sunak, then Britain’s treasury chief, gained popularity by spending billions to support shuttered businesses and pay the salaries of furloughed workers.

Now he has to deliver bitter medicine. Britain’s economy is being weighed down by the pandemic, by Brexit and especially by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has driven global energy prices sky-high.

Millions of people in Britain have seen energy bills soar, though a government-imposed cap has prevented even higher prices. Pandemic-related backlogs and staff shortages have caused record waiting times for health care in Britain’s National Health Service.

Amid financial squeeze, Sunak gets a $1.5m garden sculpture  

As millions feel a financial crunch, the government has splurged 1.3 million pounds (US$1.5 m) on a sculpture for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s garden.

The bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, titled Working Model for Seated Woman, has been sent to 10 Downing Street amid burgeoning cost of living crisis in the UK, The Sun reported.

The 1980 sculpture bought by the taxpayer-funded Government Art Collection is believed to have been sold at a Christie’s auction last month for just over 1.3 million pounds.

According to the Christie’s website, the piece of art “conveys a strong sense of maternity and pregnancy — from the gentle watchfulness of the woman’s face and her guarded posture to the protective nature of her arms and the architectural shelter she offers between her lap and shoulders to this, semi-abstract, embryonic and Jean Arp-like form”.

Downing Street said no politicians were involved in the decision to buy, The Sun reported.

With inflation hitting a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October, Britons have been cutting back on their spending.

According to a GlobalData for VoucherCodes research, Britons will spend 8.7 billion pounds ($10.5 billion) over the Black Friday weekend (November 25 – November 28).

Amid financial squeeze, a $1.5m sculpture for UK PM’s garden.(photo:Christie’s)

A new MetLife UK research said 48 per cent of the people are worried about missing their mortgage repayments due to the soaring cost of living crisis.

The study further revealed that 42 per cent have no savings to fall back on if they found themselves unable to pay their mortgage.

Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty were recently ranked 17th on the UK’s ‘Asian Rich List 2022’, with an estimated wealth of 790 million pounds.

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BJP goes all out to woo women voters

The BJP women wing is organising ‘Mahila Chaupal’ and ‘Kirtan’ at block and village levels in Uttar Pradesh along with other reach out programmes in which they interact with the beneficiaries of government schemes and appeal to vote for the party in Assembly polls…reports Asian Lite News

Knowing the importance of women voters for winning the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls for the second consecutive terms, the BJP is holding a ‘Mahila chaupal’ and ‘kirtan’ across the state.

The saffron party believes that women voters will play a crucial and decisive role in next year’s poll as they constitute nearly half (46 per cent) of the total electorate of state and their participation has increased over a period of time. In the last 2017 Assembly polls, over 60 per cent women cast their vote, more than the men.

The BJP women wing is organising ‘Mahila Chaupal’ and ‘Kirtan’ at block and village levels in Uttar Pradesh along with other reach out programmes in which they interact with the beneficiaries of government schemes and appeal to vote for the party in Assembly polls.

BJP Mahila Morcha national vice president Rekha Gupta said that the party is reaching out to the women voters through ‘Mahila Chaupal’ and ‘Kirtan’. “We are organising a series of programmes to reach out to women voters and ‘Mahila Chaupal’ and ‘Kirtan’ are two of them. In chaupal, all the attendees are beneficiaries of the government schemes. Similarly, we are reaching out to women through kirtan mandali (group). These programmes are done at village and block levels,” Gupta said.

According to Gupta, office-bearers of the mahila morcha interact with the beneficiaries following the Covid protocols and guidelines led by the Election Commission. “We tell them the people are with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for tremendous work he has done in the last five years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We explain that no government has done so much work in this short span of five years. We appeal to them to elect the BJP government to take Uttar Pradesh to a new height of development under a double engine government,” Gupta said.

Women voters played an important role in the BJP victory in 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls and ensured the return of the Modi government at the Centre in 2019. Knowing that they will also play an important and decisive role in this poll, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to win their support.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls will be held in seven phases in February-March starting from February 10. Counting of votes will be held on March 10.

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Voters have every right to cast me out, says PM

In remarks he delivered via a pre-recorded video to the Summit for Democracy, hosted by US President Joe Biden the Prime Minister said he would “not wish it any other way” than for voters to be able to get rid of him at the ballot box, reports Asian Lite News

Boris Johnson has said voters have “every right” to cast him “down and out again” as he championed the benefits of living in a democracy.

In remarks, he delivered via a pre-recorded video to the Summit for Democracy, hosted by US President Joe Biden the Prime Minister said he would “not wish it any other way” than for voters to be able to get rid of him at the ballot box.

He said: “Out of Athens more than 2,500 years ago, there came a simple and beautiful idea: that people are neither passive nor powerless, but free citizens with a right to participate in the governance of their country. The idea of democracy has gathered force down the centuries, inspiring billions across the world, and converging on the principles we all share. We believe that our peoples are entitled to elect and remove their governments through the ballot box, overseen by independent courts and a free media. We’re only here because our electorates have, at least for the time being, raised us to positions of responsibility for their affairs – but they have every right to cast us down and out again, and we would not wish it any other way.”

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is representing the UK at the opening session.

Biden opened the summit by saying protecting democracy is the “challenge of our time” and noted that “half of all democracies have experienced a decline in at least one aspect of democracy over the last 10 years, including the United States”.

The PM’s speech comes at a time when the leader is facing mounting criticism in recent times.

In a survey held last month, Johnson’s Conservatives have lost their lead in two opinion polls after a growing parliamentary standards scandal prompted almost two thirds of respondents in one survey to say the British prime minister’s party was disreputable.

In the midst of growing criticism, Conservatives were fined nearly £18,000 for failing to properly disclose a donation used to redecorate Johnson’s Downing Street flat.

The latest development in a scandal dubbed “wallpaper-gate” comes with Johnson embroiled in a series of other high-profile controversies, including claims of lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street last Christmas.

The Electoral Commission, which regulates political finance, found that the Tories failed to “accurately report the full value” of a £67,801.72 donation which covered a portion of a lavish Downing Street refurbishment.

“The investigation found that decisions relating to the handling and recording of these transactions reflected serious failings in the party’s compliance systems,” it said in a statement, announcing two fines totalling £17,800.

“The payment was incorrectly described in internal records and the full value of the donation was not correctly identified and reported,” the commission added.

Issues around the expensive refurbishment of quarters above Number 11 Downing Street — next door to his Number 10 office — that he shares with his family have dogged Johnson throughout this year.

Most of the historic estate is maintained with public money, but every prime minister gets an annual allowance of £30,000 to redecorate the living space.

But concerns emerged over how Johnson and his wife Carrie Symonds paid for a reportedly £200,000 bill for their lavish makeover — in an affair also dubbed “cash for curtains”.

Reports suggested the couple had tried to create a White House-style trust to manage the refurb, but when that failed to get off the ground the tab was settled by the Conservatives and a wealthy donor before Johnson reimbursed the party.

A newly appointed adviser on ministerial standards found earlier this year that Johnson leader had acted “unwisely” over the funding arrangements, but was not guilty of any impropriety.

However, opposition parties have seized on the saga to burnish their portrayal of Johnson as a sleazy, untruthful leader.

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